意大利妈妈为儿子真人秀选媳妇

Often seen as mommy's boys, Italian men are now letting their mothers choose their future wives live on television.

Italy's state TV aired the first episode(1) of a new reality show this week in which the mothers of five single men have to pick out prospective(2) brides from a selection of candidates.

Critics said "Perfect Bride" was both insulting(3) to women and showed Italian TV -- already packed with other reality formats such as Big Brother and Celebrity Island -- falling to new depths of banality(4).

In the first episode, the jury of mothers -- called only by their first names such as "Mamma Rosa" and "Mamma Ambra" -- quizzed 18 hopefuls about their suitability(5) as wives.

From next week the mothers will have to live in a Big Brother-style house with their potential daughters-in-law, seeing first hand how they deal with household chores(6). Viewers will be encouraged to vote off the candidates they dislike.

Mamma Teresa said she was looking for "a simple, intelligent, classy girl" for her son Claudio. "I would like someone who's not too ostentatious(7) and who knows how to take care of the family," she said on the program's Web site.

Claudio, viewers learn, is "a really capable person, very affectionate(8) with his family," but suffers from one defect common to many Italian bachelors: "He has too many girlfriends! I want to find him his ultimate woman."

In a country where it is normal for unmarried men to live with their parents into their 30s and "mamma mia!" (my mommy) is a common exclamation(9), the Italian mother figure is revered(10) by society but often feared by girlfriends and wives.

TV critics said the program exploited the stereotype(11) of the overbearing(12) mamma.

"It's the most grandiose(13), caricatural(14), corrosive(15) demolition of the image of the Italian mamma," said Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera.

La Repubblica daily said Prefect Bride had an out-dated vision of women's role in society. "State TV is going too far in its failure to limit the rubbish, the rudeness, the lying, the lack of manners and the wiping out of social changes which happened 50 years ago," it said.

2. prospective：有希望的，可能成为…的

3. insult：侮辱，玷污

4. banality：平凡、陈腐

5. suitability：适当

6. chore：家务琐事

7. ostentatious：炫耀的，卖弄的